Catholic editor: Maybe it’s time for Bishops to stop taking federal money

10/05/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I never thought I would see the day when not only would the fact become widely discussed—the fact that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops migration program is almost completely funded by the federal tax payer, but that any Catholic would tell them to stop taking it!

Phil Lawler, editor of Catholic World News: Bishops should stop “cooperating” and “coexisting” with the federal government. (They won’t of course because it’s all about the money!) http://www.catholicculture.org/about/leadership/bio_phil_lawler.cfm

In this story from Breitbart (hat tip: Joanne) yesterday, Catholic World News editor actually suggests that the Bishops’ moral/religious positions may be perverted as a result of taking millions from the US Treasury and so they should consider withdrawing as the largest refugee resettlement contractor in the US. Unbelievable!

First Breitbart reporter Dr. Susan Berry sets the stage with most that regular readers here already know:

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is funneling $4 million over the next two years to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Office of Refugee Resettlement to provide legal representation for 2,600 unaccompanied illegal minors.

“I think it’s a recognition that many of these children have valid protection claims and they need legal representation,” Kevin Appleby of the USCCB told MSNBC. “It is a result of advocacy and raising awareness about why these children are coming and why they’re fleeing.”

As Breitbart News reported Wednesday, a grant in a similar amount will be provided to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants also to pay for legal services for unaccompanied illegal minors.

The U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services (MRS) states that it is “the largest resettlement agency in the United States.”

According to the MRS’s most recent annual report, “Upwards of 90,000” young illegal immigrants were projected to arrive between October 1, 2013, and September 30, 2014.

Additionally, MRS showed a total budget of approximately $71 million, of which nearly $66 million – or about 93% – has come from federal grants and contracts. [It is actually worse than 93%, see summary from the 2012 Annual Report below***—ed].

Because the USCCB accepts federal contracts and funding, it may be subject to federal laws and, especially in the case of President Barack Obama, executive orders, that may conflict with Catholic teaching and from which there is no exemption.

Read about the Obama Executive Order we told you about here in July. Then this:

Nevertheless, the bishops show no inclination to address whether they should be “coexisting” and “cooperating” with the federal government in the first place.

Phil Lawler, editor of Catholic World News (CWN), seemed to think the bishops’ call to “oppose” the executive order was unrealistic.

[….]

Lawler suggested instead that the bishops simply stop taking federal contracts.

“President Obama doesn’t want help from the Catholic Church. Say it’s a deal; don’t give him any.”

The bishops, however, have a history of “coexisting” and “cooperating” with the government.

*** From the US Conference of Catholic Bishops 2012 Annual report for Migration and Refugee Services (be sure to check out the report and see all the things the Bishops lobbied on that year).

Page 13:

REVENUE

Federal Grants/Contracts $65,911,344 (taxpayer money)

CRS Collection $ 1,369,807

Refugee Travel Loan Fees $ 3,622,886 (this is taxpayer $ too, feds loaned it and USCCB collects and keeps some)

Investment Income and $65,719
Private Grants/Donations

Other $5,481

Total Revenue $70,975,237

So, that’s about 98% of their funds for 2012 that came from you! That is not what I call Christian charity!

All of our coverage of the ‘Unaccompanied minors’ issue is here. I think the Bishops actually helped light the fire for the kids to head north when they traveled to Central America in 2013, resulting in lobbyist Appleby writing this report.

Here is what I said in July just as the border surge was getting fully underway about that report:

With their trip to Central America and the follow-up report one wonders if the Bishops were prescient in predicting 60,000 invaders or were they helping to make it happen?

Will American refugee worker be next on ISIS list?

10/05/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update October 14th: Greta Van Susteren calls out “moderate” Muslims in America and asks them to repudiate ISIS for being anti-Islam if they kill Kassig, here.

Update October 13th: More of Kassig’s family history in the peace and justice movement, refugee resettlement at USA Today.

Apparently ISIS has featured an Indiana refugee worker for its next possible beheading. Peter Kassig briefly served in the US Army, but came from a family “with a long history of doing humanitarian work.”

In fact, near the end of this AP story we learn that Peter had earlier helped with the resettlement of Burmese refugees in Indiana before making the jump to helping refugees in Syria. Longtime readers know that some cities in Indiana, especially Fort Wayne, have been completely overloaded with mostly Burmese refugees. It is one of the first overloaded cities we learned about back in 2007 and the situation there prompted former Senator Richard Lugar to ask for a GAO study of the refugee program which concluded that communities are completely unprepared for the numbers the US State Department and their contractors are bringing in. But I digress…

Will ISIS care that he was a good person helping refugees? Or, that he converted to Islam?

Family photo of Kassig delivering aid to Syrian refugees.

From AP:

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The parents of an Indiana man threatened with beheading by the Islamic State group are pleading with his captors to free him, saying in a video statement Saturday that their son has devoted his life to humanitarian work and aiding Syria’s war refugees.

Ed and Paula Kassig’s video was released a day after the Islamic State group’s online video threatened to behead 26-year-old Peter Kassig next — following the beheading of British aid worker Alan Henning.

That video was a heartbreaking development for Kassig’s family and friends, who had stayed silent since his capture while working to secure his release.

In the family’s video, Ed Kassig says his son, who now goes by the first name Abdul-Rahman after converting to Islam during his captivity, was captured on Oct. 1, 2013, in Syria, where he was providing aid for refugees fleeing that country’s civil war.

He says his son has grown “to love and admire” the Syrian people, after growing up in an Indianapolis family with a long history of humanitarian work and teaching.

“Our son was living his life according to that same humanitarian call when he was taken captive,” says Ed Kassig, a teacher.

[….]

Kassig focused on humanitarian work after leaving the military. While attending Indianapolis’ Butler University, he worked to help refugees from Myanmar who had resettled in central Indiana, said family spokeswoman Jodi Perras.

In my opinion, that since Kassig converted to Islam it would be in the best PR interests of ISIS to spare him—to teach the Islamic lesson: convert or die. Why the hell say that if one converts and dies anyway!

This must be having a chilling effect on those considering “humanitarian” work in the Middle East.

Al-Hijra has a prize! Sweden breaks from EU to support Palestinian state

10/05/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update: Diana West has a much more thorough post on Sweden today, here.

The radical move is blamed on the large number of Arab Muslim migrants (other non-Arabs, like the Somalis, add to the number) who have been “welcomed” into Sweden in the last few years and now have enough of a population to sway the Socialist government there.

Al-Hijra, as readers here know, is the Islamic doctrine of conquest through immigration. No heads need to roll, they just must get into the country in great numbers, start producing the next generation and insert themselves in the democratic process. It is all about numbers!

This is one more bit of evidence to back my bet that Sweden will be the first European country to fall to the Islamists.

Sweden’s new Prime Minister Stefan Lofven announced Friday that Sweden would break with the EU and recognize the state of Palestine now. http://www.cubiclane.com/2014/10/03/sweden-recognize-palestine-state-87949

Times of Israel:

Stockholm’s announcement over the weekend that it would recognize the independent state of Palestine was influenced by the vocal and growing Muslim minority in Sweden, Israel’s ambassador to Sweden charged Sunday morning.

New Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said during his inaugural address Friday that Sweden would recognize Palestine, a move that would make it the first member of the European Union to recognize a Palestinian state.

Loftven’s party, the Social Democrats, are “anti-Israeli,” ambassador Issac Bachman told Israel Radio, but another reason for the statement “is the large Arab minority, which has grown unbelievably this year.” Bachman charged that Sweden has taken in some 80,000 Arab refugees in 2014, mostly from Iraq and Syria, and claimed there were 700,000 Muslims living in the country.

“All this against a social-democratic background, which is pro-Arabic, pro-Islam and anti-Israeli,” Bachman said.

In July, the Swedish Migration Board said it estimated 62,000 Syrians would apply for asylum in the country in 2014, among 80,000 expected refugees seeking asylum in Sweden this year.

And, now here comes that intellectual bright light, Jen Psaki, over at the US State Department with harsh words for Sweden (not!):

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psakia said the US looks forward to working with the new government of Sweden — a close partner — but called international recognition of a Palestinian state “premature.”

Meanwhile in nearby Norway, the Norwegians are trying to get rid of their Muslim trouble-makers.

See our complete archive on Sweden, here.